Tutorial
This is a step-by-step tutorial to End of Nations. Create a commander First of all, log in the shard and create a commander (account), if you haven't done already. Remember - you can have 2 commanders for beta and it's currently not possible to delete commanders. If you want more commander slots, you can buy them from depot later. Next, input the name - if it differs from your forum name, you might not be easily recognized. Players usually put their clan name before their name. War room interface After deploying your commander, you are at War room. From here you can make teams, get into a match, research units, go to armory etc - this is the main control room. Teams, queue and getting into a match Select a map and press Join Battle - you'll be placed into the queue. The numbers at Battle Menu window show how many players are queued for that map. When there are enough players, the match will start. Some maps start at smaller player count, additional players drop in later. If you want queue to be faster, you can queue for all maps at once. If you don't see the "Queue for all" button, just leave queue and zoom out with mouse wheel. You can make a team with other players of your faction, if you don't want to play with random players. To invite someone into your team, press the + button at top left, under your avatar and type his name. You can also look for other teams by asking in faction chat. Maximum size of a team is 4. Right clicking on your and teammate's portraits provides some team control options. Chat To open the chat, press enter. You can change chat channels by pressing Tab. Some info about channels: General - Everyone will hear you Faction - Players of your faction will hear you Tell - This is like whispering, only the player you send tell will see the message. To send tells, type: /tell Instance - Players in the current battle will hear you - both allies and enemies Army - Everyone at your side in current battle will hear you, including your team Team - Only players in your team will hear you. In large maps, these are only 4 player, with whom you share vision To scroll up the chat history, open it and press the double arrow on the right. With the "wrench" button at the left you can edit your ignore list and select chat channels, which you want to use and see. The chat is a work in progress and will be completely re-written soon. Profinaty filter currently uses commander names for filtering, and filter too many words. To turn off that filter, press Esc > gameplay > uncheck "Profinaty filter" box. Customization If you don't like the default company setup, you can customize it whenever not in a match. At the war room, press the Armory (tank) button at top. Here you can customize your forces, build out companies, and spend your in-game wealth on new units, structures, commander abilities, and more. Hover over the top navigation buttons for more information. To get back into war room, press the globe button at top. A company includes units, structures and commander abilities (CA). You have 3 companies availible (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie). To switch between them, press the left and right arrow buttons at top left of unit tray. On the right side "Reserves" window includes all units which are not placed in any company. Buy new units with "Buy" button. You cannot sell back anything. To move units between reserves/company, just right click on them (or drag-drop). The same way, you can buy/move hero units, turrets and commander abilities by using the drop-down at top of reserves window. Each units costs some Company Points (CP), check it's cost in Reserves window (because of a bug, currently a unit should be placed there so CP is visible). At level 1, you have 1000 CP available for units, and 500 for structures. You get +250 unit CPs and +125 structure CPs every 5 levels (at levels 5, 10, 15, 20). Commander abilities (CA) do not cost company points, they only take a slot. Heros are enhanced versions of regular units, you can have 1 in your company. Besides being more powerful, they ususally provide some bonuses to allied units nearby and have some exclusive abilities. Though they ususally cost a lot of money and CP. Open the research lab - here you can research new units/structures/abilities by spending your research points. You have 1 reseach point at level 2 and gain +1 each level. By default, you have pre-researched 4 units (the right side ones), a few turrets and CAs. Get 1 free copy of the item you research. MK2 units unlock at level 5, and MK3 ones at level 15. MK2 turrets/CAs unlock at level 10. Higher mark units have 20% more damage/health, and sometimes other buffs. You need to research a unit/turret/ability in order to buy or use it. It's also possible to clear the research points, but use this only when need - currently you can respec (clear) the research tree only 10 times. You need to remove all researched units/etc from companies in order to clear research tree. You do not lose any units/etc by clearing the research tree. They just become locked at reserves window, you can use them later if you research them again. Unfortunately it's currently not possible to see detailed unit info before researching it. Mods are special items which increse unit/turret stats when equipped. Get 1 random mod from winning a map, also you can buy standard mods from the depot. To equip a mod, simply select a unit, and right-click on the mod. Most powerful mods cost 5 CP to equip, weaker ones don't cost any CP. You can buy Elite Companies from "companies" menu. Elite companies are special companies with exclusive units, heros, and skin, you cannot remove anything from it but you can add units later when you have more CP available. You can change the skin of your units - see the "customize" button. All these buyable items are also availible at Depot. Here you can find boosts, portraits, commander slots, company slots etc. Effective mod usage As you play and level up, you'll get mods. Using them on the units and turrets improves their various stats. There are 2 kinds of mods: plain mods (which just add values to stats) and percent mods (which multiply the stats). Some simple math calculations show that plain (+) mods are effective on units with less than 300 damage and less than 10000 health, and % mods are effective on units with more than 300 damage / 10000 HP. There are also plain vison mods, and critical mods (more about gameplay mechanics later)./QUOTE How maps work There are several types of capture points, controlling which gives certain advantages to your team. *Landing zones *Resource points *Victory points *Superweapon points Landing zones (LZ) is where your units spawn when the match starts, and where reinforcements arrive. Capture an LZ and your team can land units there to avoid driving long distances. A team can control several LZs simultainously, to switch between them click on the LZ and press "Select landing zone". You cannot land units if your enemy captures your current LZ until you select a new one. There are starting LZs, which cannot be captured. Landing zones also slowly heal your units. Every map has 2 to 6 resouces per second gathering rate depending on the map. Capturing a resource point (RP) gives additional +2 resources per second. Controlling more RP than the enemy will eventually "resource starve" the enemy - he won't have resources for commander abilities and landing reinforcements when his units are destroyed. Several maps (like RH), are won by capturing and holding victory points (VP). Capturing most of the VPs will give your team victory points faster than the enemy and you'll eventually win. Check your and enemy's "victory" points gathered at top of UI. On other maps like IB, DH capturing most of the VPs disables the enemy shield, and gives your army a chance to destroy the enemy HQ. On some maps there are superweapon points - they give a specific superweapon crate upon capture. When it's captured, small crates appear near it - remember to pick them up so you can use that superweapon. After using the superweapon, you lose it and must pick the crate again. Superweaons are powerful weapons like bombing run and nuke and cost a lot of money to use, so drop them on large enemy groups. Factories are stuctures which when upgraded, give some kind of advantage like dropping defensive turrets around your base. To upgrade it, click on the circle above it and select "Upgrade factory". There are zones which can be accessed only by infantry units, such as forests in RH. Use them to escape with infantry squad from enemy chase or move your units in shorter routes. In some PvE maps you'll find resource drops. To pick them up, just move a unit near it and right click on it. Superweapon crates are picked up the same way. Gameplay strategy Try not to move your units near each other and near fellow commander's units. Deathballs are easy targets for artillery and commander abilities like napalm and orbital laser. Make several control groups and keep some distance between them. Use unit abilities. They are free. Many units are useless without them. In PvP maps, try to resource starve the enemy - capture as many resource points as you can, soon your team will have more income and the enemy will be limited in CA usage and will have difficulties calling reinforcements. Use control groups. Like other RTS games, you can set control groups to select your unit groups faster with hotkeys. To set a control group, press Ctrl+Number, where Number is a number in your keyboard. To select the group later, simply click that Number key. This makes unit control much faster and easier. It is possible to give resources to your armymates. To transfer resources, select someone's unit and press +. Help your teammates. Use healing CAs drop support structures near them. If your current company isn't effective - switch it. For example if you brought tanks, and the enemy rolls a lot of air, it's best to switch your company to AA. To change the company, press C. Assault together with teammates. If you go alone, and fight against several enemy players at once, you'll have little chance. Concentrate your fire on 1 enemy unit only. If you attack all enemies at once, they will all be alive for a longer time and deal more damage over time to you. Also target low health units first - they die fast and reduce the overall damage the enemy deals to you. Try to resource starve the enemy - capture and hold as many RPs as you can - that way you'll have more resources and the enemy will be limited in CA usage. Use superweapons (bombing run, nuke) and direct damage CAs (napalm, orbital laser) on large enemy groups only. Using these on small groups just wastes the money and isn't resource effective. Use speed advantage to chase retreating enemies. Use range advantage to kite enemies and remain untouchable. Use hotkeys for faster reaction. Here is a list of most used hotkeys: V = call reinforcements. This works only when you have enough money for to reinforce all units at once. Otherwise you need to call in units 1 by 1 by clicking on them in tray. Q, W, E, R, T, etc = activate unit ability of specific unit type C = change company Ctrl+A = select all units Space = display ranges of selected units A = attack move. To order attack move, hold A key and right click on ground Tab = match score dialog Mid mouse button (mouse 3) = scroll the map. Hold down and and scroll the mouse to move camera faster and easier than pointing at map edges Ctrl+ = Assign unit group = select an existing unit group Page Up/Page Down = rotate the camera You can customize all these hotkeys from hotkey settings window. Metagame, map rewards and progression The metagame is divided into time frames called "campaigns". Your faction gains campaign points as you win maps. At the end of a campaign, the faction with highest campaign points wins. Earn wealth and experince by playing. Larger maps give more wealth/XP. Losing a battle gives you half the money/XP, and retreating before the match ends gives nothing. Winning also gives a random mod. The higher your level, more powerful that mod is. Credits are currency like wealth, but more expensive and you can't earn them - it's only possible to buy them with real money at release. Category:PvE